Laptop lifespan

soundsham

I know there's a lot of ifs and buts regarding spec/model but what would you guys say is the average lifespan of an apple laptop
Everything being standard middle of the road as regards spec
Just wondering as my dell xps1330 is dog slow

whiterebel

soundsham wrote: »

I know there's a lot of ifs and buts regarding spec/model but what would you guys say is the average lifespan of an apple laptop
Everything being standard middle of the road as regards spec
Just wondering as my dell xps1330 is dog slow

There's a thread for Mac computers here:
Mac Forum

The one here is for iPods, iPads, iPhones etc.

Josey Wales

Well I bought my last MacBook in September 2007. It was a mid-range Mac at the time. I'm am still using it today. It still runs pretty well although I did increase the RAM two years ago.

I have just purchased a new one though as I have simply run out of space on my old Mac.

whiterebel

My son is using a 12" Powerbook which is about 8 years old now, I guess. Still runs a version of OS X, and whilst slow, is still useable. I suppose the only one that had problems physically were the Plasticbooks - The aluminium bodies seem to last well.

Stainless_Steel

I have a core duo black MacBook (best laptop design ever btw!) in 2006 and it is still as fast as ever! Build quality is top notch too.

As above I upgraded the RAM to 2GB and also swapped the HDD from 80GB to 160GB (god how times change).

Reoil

The first Mac I bought in 2005 is still going strong.

Andrew33

soundsham wrote: »

I know there's a lot of ifs and buts regarding spec/model but what would you guys say is the average lifespan of an apple laptop
Everything being standard middle of the road as regards spec
Just wondering as my dell xps1330 is dog slow

I've an XPS 1530 and while it's a good machine, it is gone a bit slow too. I was told that this is down to the type of hard drive that is fitted. It's a solid state HD rather than a spinning disc type. The hard drive has a finite number of times that it can be written to/read from and as it approaches its limits it will slow down. Mine only has a piddly 60GB HD and I struggle to keep a couple of gb's free on it. I'm going to look into getting a new larger HD fitted as I like the machine itself.

whiterebel

Stainless_Steel wrote: »

I have a core duo black MacBook (best laptop design ever btw!) in 2006 and it is still as fast as ever! Build quality is top notch too.

As above I upgraded the RAM to 2GB and also swapped the HDD from 80GB to 160GB (god how times change).

No, no...not even close .
The "Wall Street" range was absolutely brilliant in its day. Black clamshell design, battery/ Optical drive bays which could be swapped i.e. 2 batteries or 1 battery/1 drive, more connectivity than you could shake a stick at, brilliant 13" screen. Second is the wonderful MBA......Just to look at:cool:

paddyandy

My Targa notebook is 5 years old this december and better than ever (lidls) .

Sad Professor

I've an almost 6 year old white iMac. The LCD is failing in it (vertical lines on the screen), but other than it's running fine and my mother still uses it.

I also had a iBook G4 that was still working after 6 years and would probably still be working except somebody broke the hinge, severing the video cable. I'd have fixed it but those things are a nightmare to dissemble.

Once a machine goes over 3-4 years things get unpredictable. There are any number of components that could start to fail. I always upgrade around the 4 year mark.

Stainless_Steel

whiterebel wrote: »

No, no...not even close .
The "Wall Street" range was absolutely brilliant in its day. Black clamshell design, battery/ Optical drive bays which could be swapped i.e. 2 batteries or 1 battery/1 drive, more connectivity than you could shake a stick at, brilliant 13" screen. Second is the wonderful MBA......Just to look at:cool:

Have to disagree! The wall street range was typical of Apple during the "no Steve jobs around" era. They didn't know what to put in a notebook so tried to put everything in! Plus I think they looked horrible lol but in fairness looked better than most laptops of its day.

People are still in awe when they see my black plastic MacBook. It's design is timeless. Ok you got me with the Air....that is the mutts nutts.

soundsham

Thanks for the replies 4-5 yrs seems ok

Looking at next models perhaps maybe as I can get vat off through work & a golfer made me €500 richer last night
so might be time to move to apple as I have iPhone iPad and atv2

Cheers

Stainless_Steel

I would recommend you do. The laptops are worth it themselves but seeing as you have other iOS devices you will be pleasantly surprised with the seamless integration.

snollup

My MacBook 1.1 (06 or 07, cant remember) is still running really well. Ordered a solid state HD (€90) for it so hoping to get another few years out of it yet!

conor.hogan.2

plasticbook macbook is still going strong and is around 4 years old.

paddyandy

What must fail eventually and the first to give problems and can't be replaced ?

conor.hogan.2

HDD would be the likeliest if I had to guess.

Sad Professor

HDDs are easy enough to replace in MBPs though. But yeah, they will fail eventually.

I wouldn't count the HDD or the battery when evaluating a notebook's lifespan.

conor.hogan.2

Ye I agree very easy to replace and is the same in all laptops, but they are the most likely to fail imo.

NUTZZ

Typing this on a 2007 MacBook Pro, only upgraded the RAM since the day I bought it and it still runs like a beast!

snollup

Just thinking that mods should lock this thread. We're all asking for our laptops to give up any day now by talking about how long they are lasting.

Wibbs

Sad Professor wrote: »

HDDs are easy enough to replace in MBPs though. But yeah, they will fail eventually.

Particularly in the black/white macbooks. They have a high and widely reported failure rate on that score.

I've a 1999 Powerbook G3 Pismo, the later slimmer wall street model. USB, Firewire, wireless. I upped the drive to a 120Gb and the RAM to a gig. Also installed a later superdrive(DVD writer) into a an expansion case and works like a charm. Runs 10.4 tiger no bother and a lot faster than any linux distro I've thrown at it. With both batteries on board I get around 8 hours of battery life. I could even upgrade the CPU to a G4, but I'd not really bother. The real bottleneck is the Vram. It's grand as a general machine, writing and most web browsing, a lot cooler on the lap compared to my '11 MBP